


Where We Belong

by conniptionns



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2017-06-08
Packaged: 2018-11-11 00:33:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11137707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/conniptionns/pseuds/conniptionns
Summary: prompt: andrew and neil get into this huge fight while andrew is driving so he tells neil to get out the car and walk the rest of the way.





	Where We Belong

“I swear to all that is holy, if you mess with the radio again, I will slice off your hands.”

“Do you really think I’m afraid of you, Andrew?” Neil asked. He pressed the scan button and the radio started rapidly going through the different stations. When Andrew tried to reach forward and stop it, Neil smacked his hand out of the way. “This isn’t actually why you’re mad, is it?”

“I’m not mad,” Andrew said, his voice dripping over mad like it was the most disgusting word in the world, “Anger would imply that I care, which I don’t.” His hands tightened on the steering wheel. As the car cycled through static stations, the only sound in the car was soft static and the creaking leather of Andrew squeezing the life out of his steering wheel.

“If you keep at the rate you’re going, not only will you get a speeding ticket, but you’ll also snap off your steering wheel.” Neil had waited until the radio started going back through stations before he started talking. The twang of country songs only amped up Andrew’s ire.

Andrew wasn’t speaking, though. He only pressed harder on the gas, making the speedometer lurch forward, just like the car. No, Andrew wasn’t mad, but he sure was pissed, which okay, arguably the same thing, but if the court reporter read back Andrew’s statement, it would be clear that he had not perjured himself.

To truly justify his pissy mood, Andrew had to keep the act that brought him to this juncture, because he meant what he said when he said that he did not care. Perhaps that was the problem entirely. Andrew didn’t fucking care. He felt more apathetic than he had felt in a long time, but seeping through the edge of his apathetic malaise was the need to just be pissed off. Unfortunately for Neil, he was both the only one around and the only person that could truly get under Andrew’s skin.

In the grand scheme of things, the act itself was very small. They were traveling east on Highway 90; Andrew didn’t know what there destination was or where he wanted to be. There was just an itch to _go_  and not stop. It happened sometimes. It was the reason for his first stint in juvie. He boosted a car (his foster father’s car, which he returned, so was it really stealing) and got halfway from Montana to Nevada when the Idaho State Police pulled him over and called his foster father to come get him. His foster father elected not to. After juvie, Andrew was returned to being a ward of the state, but he never regretted that trip. The freedom in the ability to just _go_  was intoxicating.

This time, when Andrew speaks, the rage shakes his voice. “Don’t you ever, _ever_  jump in front of a gun for me again. What the fuck were you thinking?”

“I was _thinking_  it was a bluff, and might I remind you, I was right.”

Andrew whipped his head and turned towards Neil with his foot still on the accelerator. “Not the _fucking_  point.”

Neil rolled down the windows and stuck his hand out the window, while the wind whipped his hair across his forehead. “Not to be that guy, but you sound mad.”

“Roll up the windows the ac is on.” This time, his voice was much quieter, lethal.

“Since when do you give a fuck about the environment or saving money?”

Andrew smacked the wheel. “Didn’t your mother teach you not to jump in front of a pistol? Get out.” Andrew slammed on the brakes, but Neil was already bracing himself for impact. Instead of the stop, he was bracing for the impact of fists. The phrase was common enough, but it was too reminiscent of Nathan’s words when Neil was a small boy. _Didn’t your mother teach you not to give me lip, boy?_

Andrew knew this, but that was the thing. Andrew wanted it to hurt. He needed Neil to feel how scared he was when Neil had jumped in front of Andrew to get in between Andrew and a gun.

Neil got out of the car and Andrew was tense and waiting for the door to slam in anger, but it never happened. Neil shut the door, just as gently as he would if he was shutting it with his hip on any other day. That almost made it worse. The gentle click of the door closing, and the sight of Neil walking in the other direction. Neil was right though, Andrew was mad. He slammed on the gas and at first Neil was a speck in the rearview mirror, and then in the blink of an eye, he was gone.

Andrew drove for awhile. He was devastated by what he had done, sure, but this was the only way to make Neil stop making risky fucking moves in order to be some type of martyr-hero-guy. He was going to get as far away as he could from Neil Josten, because he wasn’t going to be his end.

As the scenery pass by in a blur, Andrew was lost in his thoughts and they somehow meandered their way to his house in Columbia. He supposed that that was poetic, the first place that he actually had a home. The first place that Neil had a home to. Neil. When Neil first saw that house, he was so mad. Andrew couldn’t really blame him, he had drugged him and Neil ended up going off to get himself socked in the face. Andrew wasn’t one for apologies, but that was one that Matt made him do.

Andrew didn’t typically let Matt tell him what to do, but this time in particular Andrew had made a special allowance. Matt had laid into him for taking Neil and forcing him to run away when he was scared and hitchhike his way home. Andrew listened because he was surprised that a man who lived his life in fear of everything that breathed was forced to ask a stranger for help from a situation that he had put Neil in.

Again it was an example of Andrew putting Neil in harms way, but that was different than what Neil did. Neil did something of his own free will. He chose Andrew. This time, just like Columbia, Andrew hadn’t given Neil a choice. Wouldn’t it be fucking fate for Neil to do something stupid like hitchhike again?

Andrew whipped the car into a u-turn and sped off into the direction Neil had started walking. When he passed where he had left skid marks where he let Neil out, Andrew tighten his hands on the steering wheel. He had to keep his eyes peeled to see Neil. He would probably stay on the main road, unless he preferred to walk in the grass to keep from overheating on the asphalt. 

Andrew couldn’t believe what he had done. However noble his intentions were, he well and truly hurt Neil. Andrew knew that Neil was still sensitive about his mother, and with good reason.

Thirty minutes had past since Andrew sped past the spot where he had left Neil to start his journey on foot. There was no way that Neil had made it this far this quickly, and Andrew was thinking about doubling back when a truck with jacked up tires stopped in the middle of the road about half a mile ahead of him. He slammed on the brakes when he saw Neil jump out of the passenger side, with two milkshakes in his hand.

Andrew got out of the car and sprinted over to Neil. The truck pulled away as Andrew threw himself into Neil’s arms, knocking the milkshakes to the ground.

“Don’t you ever pull that shit again,” Andrew insisted.

“You said get out.”

“Yeah but I didn’t mean it. You know I didn’t mean it.”

“Ok, but did you mean to make me drop the milkshakes?” Neil asked.

“Fuck the milkshakes. I only care about nothing.”

“I’m going to ignore your poor grammar because that was kind of horrible and cute at the same time. I love you, Andrew, and I forgive you, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> you can find me on tumblr @exychamp


End file.
